Daily Archives: 12 October, 2014

Stephen Page: 4

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HastingsUnitarianChurch, Saturday 11th October 2014

A full programme for the opening day of Hastings Week, coupled with heavy thundery showers, could have depleted our potential audience.  It was wonderful therefore to see many regular supporters, and many new faces, so that every chair in the Meeting Place was taken!

Stephen never fails to delight with the amazing variety he includes within one programme.  We started with Eric Thiman to whom Stephen has introduced us in previous recitals. There was a quietly humorous note to begin – the lively Short Fanfare was very, very short! Thiman’s reflective Chorale led naturally into JS Bach’s gentle Adagio in A minor, the only movement of his Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, we learned, that could be accommodated on the small pedal board of the Snetzler. JC Simon’s Prelude and Fugue, also in A minor, was in lively contrast to the Bach.  Such contrasts continued in a programme which spanned four centuries, took us from England to the continent and America, and ranged from classical, sacred, and martial music, to musical comedy.

Sacred music was well represented. From the mid-twentieth century, Arthur Milner gave us In Nomine, based on Latin Chant, while Gordon Young’s Prelude on Slane and Recessional on St Anne were more familiar to the non-musicians amongst us as Be thou my vision, and O God our help in ages past. Both composers were also represented by secular works – Young’s jaunty and better known Prelude in Classical Style, and Milner’s Intermezzo and Carillon from 6 Miniatures.

The 6 Miniatures well demonstrated the organ’s range, including the delicate dulciana stop  patented by Snetzler himself. Stephen had planned the entire recital to demonstrate the versatility of the organ. Each of this year’s recitals has contained a Sonata by CPE Bach as its longest item.  This time it was number 5 in D major. As Stephen explained, his style was revolutionary, being playful and full of sudden contrasts, and the two manuals of the Snetzler were well able to demonstrate this.  Another item chosen to show the organ’s potential, was the Humoresque (L’Organo Primitivo), of Pietro Yon.  Sometimes known as Toccatina for Flute, the piece uses just this one stop throughout.

The programme displayed not only the versatility of the instrument, but also the skill and dexterity of the player. Watching Stephen’s hands brought to mind a scientist who some years ago included ‘a pianist’s fingers’ in his Seven Wonders of the Natural World, as they move faster than the brain can send messages to them!

The programme concluded with Jule Styne’s The Party’s Over, and Abe Holzmann’s Blaze Away! which set our toes tapping and sent us on our way humming. Both the titles and the music seemed a fitting end to a stimulating 2014 series of organ recitals at the Unitarian Meeting Place.   Thank you, Stephen!                                                                           CE

 

 

 

Maidstone Symphony Orchestra

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Tae-Hyung Kim

A comfortably full Mote Hall greeted the new season for the Maidstone Symphony Orchestra. When subsidies and sponsorship are so difficult to come by these days it is a pleasure to realise that the series is able to continue almost entirely as a result of the generous support of individuals and the enthusiasm of the audience.

The opening concert may have seemed conventional in its planning – an overture, a concerto, a symphony. There was, however, more to it than this as Brian Wright pointed out in his introduction. Tae-Hyung Kim not only won the Hastings International Piano Competition in 2013 but was playing in Russia immediately before flying in for the Maidstone concert.

Wagner may look like the odd one out but the romanticism of the overture to Tannhauser was happily in keeping with the early Tchaikovsky symphony. The strings impressed in the Venusberg music and the horns were resplendent at the end. Balance was excellent throughout in a piece which can easily fall apart as the counter-point becomes more complex.

Tae-Hyung Kim had won the Hastings competition playing Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto and he performed this for us last night. His approach appears quite cool to the onlooker. There are no histrionics or mannerisms to detract from the score, yet his impact on the ear is very finely focused. He made a very strong opening statement, creating subtle contrasts in the more reflective passages. The second movement was particularly delicately phrased before a bravura launch into the final Rondo. Here the humour was allowed to shine through and the dance-like forms were never far away. A pity he could not be persuaded for an encore – he deserved one.

Tchaikovsky’s early symphonies suffer, like Dvorak’s, from the over-popularity of the later ones. As a result Winter Daydreams, Tchaikovsky’s first symphony, is still rarely heard, though as Brian Wright demonstrated it is a fine work.

The opening movement is clearly the voice of Tchaikovsky and the Russian themes flow throughout. Darker moments which well up from nowhere were ever present but the light is never put out. The second movement opens as if it was part of the Serenade for Strings but then moves to a more pastoral feel with the solo wind. Suddenly a long lyrical line unfolds, as if the composer could not hold it in any longer. The same is true for the Scherzo where the central movement which would normally be a trio is a flood of lyricism which could easily sit in any of the later works.  After a sombre opening the final movement bursts with Schumannesque vitality and draws on the full brass section.

The orchestra is privileged to have such fine solo players and to create such a firm body of sound in its larger departments.  We can only look forward to the rest of the season – with Copland, Brahms and Vaughan Williams on Saturday 29 November. www.mso.org.uk